Around this time last year I drew up some BJJ goals/targets for the coming 12 months – with a view to attaining as many of them as possible. Now almost a year on I think its important to document where I triumphed, where I came short and also what new goals/targets I’m setting myself for 2009.

It’s coming to the end of 2008 and now is a perfect time to reflect on your game over the past year. This can come in many areas, but today I want to talk about the different factions of BJJ that you use whilst rolling.

To gauge such a thing I think it’s worth pondering the question – When you roll what percentage of ‘The game’ do you use?

By that I mean what proportion of the encyclopedia of BJJ do you try and execute during a standard roll? Do you play mainly guard, go for triangles and omo platas and repeat the process? Do you shoot straight to top control and work predominately from there, or do you alternate between playing top game, sometimes play guard, mix it up with some back control, plenty of sweeps, mount and a full range of submissions, transitions and strategies? (more…)

BJJ is a battle of inches as they say and everyday we all walk the fine line between too much or not enough.

Whether that’s using too much or not enough strength, being over active or under active during a roll, sinking your hooks in too shallow or nice and deep, playing loose and fluid or tight and rigid – the list goes on and on and on.

So what is the right amount of strength to use? How active do I need to be in a roll? How deep should I play my hooks? What is the perfect balance between being loose and fluid and tightly impenetrable?

Well the answer is… very complicated and also different for everyone at their different levels, weights, styles, game-plans, the situation you’re in, the phase of the moon, the brand of deodorant they use and most importantly their dress sense.

I’m sorry to raise your hopes in trying to define and solve the complicated quandary that is the ‘Too much – not enough‘ spectrum but although I haven’t solved it yet, I think conceptually it’s something we can all be thinking about.

So if you think you might be using too much or not enough during training, try to redress the balance for the better. Remember it might not be a technical issue that is stopping you pull off a sweep or guard pass it might just be that you weren’t in the right place on the ‘Too much – not enough’ spectrum.

What inspired this post is a fabulous advert from the good people at Audi (crosses fingers, awaits free car) who have an advert on the different types of grip we all use everyday. It really illustrates the spectrum and as you’ll see it neatly transposes over to BJJ.

Anyway, take a look and make sure this week you consider the spectrum and how it may have helped you pull something off or miss a golden opportunity.

Things I learnt from – Chris Haueter #3 -The goal of sport BJJ is to win and the goal of BJJ as an art is to be as smooth as possible.

There is a lot written about training with too much ego, rolling just to win and going too hard, but one thing I’ve never taken into account is an individuals or BJJ clubs thoughts on this statement:

The goal of sport BJJ is to win and the goal of BJJ as an art is to be as smooth as possible.

If you take a second to think about your reasons behind training in relation to the statement, the aforementioned ego levels and ethos to training suddenly become clearer.

Now, I’m not saying you need to choose to be from one camp or the other, but whether you like it or not the way you train can be somewhat derived from being more sport or art orientated.

I think everyone should strive to be as smooth and technically proficient whether rolling or drilling, as although I’m not really into the mysticism of martial arts, I think we all owe it to the art somewhat. Also if you’re fly-wing weight like me, then you need to make sure you’re doing things properly, as against bigger partners – the obvious strength, weight and size difference start to dictate the roll immensely.

Things I learnt from Chris Haueter – #1 Starting a roll from your knees isn’t as useful as starting it in different positions.

Most grappling clubs start sparring with both people on their knees and whilst this minimises the injuries that sparring on the feet has, I don’t think it’s the most efficient use of limited class time.

I agree that it’s fair and even, but why not start with one person in closed guard, in side control or in back control etc? By doing such a thing you’re in the thick of the action straight away and not dancing around the mulberry bush just to get started.

I think taking such an approach is also a really useful way of building the repetitions of breaking a closed guard, getting out from under side control or keeping on someones back (All fundamental core skills that can never be worked enough).

But you don’t have to stop there you can start from any position.

If for instance you’ve just taught a class on De la Rivaguard, how inefficient is it if everyone then starts to roll from their knees? Yes, eventually one person will end up in guard but why not save some time by starting with one person in De la Riva guard? Then if someone progresses to a tap etc, then they end up in De la Riva guard, giving the other person a go. This gives both people a chance to work what has been covered, work opposing sides of the material and is a more efficient use of your time. (more…)

Last week I had the pleasure of training twice and having a roll with the legendary Chris Haueter. It was a privilege to host him at our gym and we all learnt soo much.

So in this mini-article I’m going to give you an overview of Things I learnt from – Chris Haueter. I will then expand some of the points into separate entries with photos, explanation and video where appropriate.

So here we go – Things I learnt from Chris Haueter:

Starting a roll from your knees isn’t as useful as starting it in different positions.

Americans like to whine if they’re injured, whilst Brits are ‘Stoic’ and soldier on regardless. (Chris’s words not mine)

There is a huge difference between having something (i.e a grip, hook etc) and actually using it properly.

The goal of sport BJJ is to win and the goal of BJJ as an art is to be as smooth as possible.